


Joke's On Both of Us

by LuckOfADraw (Mirime)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Heavy Angst, Identity Reveal, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Tumblr Prompt, reveal gone wrong
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-22
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-11 05:14:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8955016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mirime/pseuds/LuckOfADraw
Summary: From a Tumblr prompt by kittybug: "Marinette finds out that Adrien is Chat Noir and finally works up the courage to confess her feelings to him. Of course, he doesn’t know she’s Ladybug so he rejects her as kindly as possible. Marinette, in a moment of panic, admits that she’s Ladybug to him but he doesn’t believe her. The next day, Chloe (having overheard the last part of their conversation) starts berating her in front of the whole class for claiming that she’s Ladybug just to win Adrien’s affections."





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my take on that super angsty prompt that blew up on Tumblr a couple of weeks back. I have three parts done, which can be found on my [Tumblr](http://mirime-kisarrastine.tumblr.com/tagged/jobou/chrono) if you don't want to wait until I post them here and am working on another. I hope to finish the story by the end of this year, we shall see how I'll do.

What would you do if the entire world as you knew it fell down around you? What would you do when the one thing you took for granted would stop being yours? What would you do when you realized that some pedestals were too high to be toppled and yet others would take no effort at all to crumble?

Some people would rage. Some would cry. Some would try and repair the damage.

Marinette smiled.

She smiled in the face of Chloe's fury that was both justified and not. She smiled in the face of Adrien's disappointment. She smiled in the face of her classmates' tarnished opinion of hers. She smiled and if it was a little too forced, there was no one in the room who knew her well enough to tell.

She smiled because she realized the joke that had been played on her by fate.

Chat Noir didn't love her and she didn't love him. After all, how can you love someone when you don't even know them?

Chat Noir didn't know Ladybug enough to recognize her without a mask, not even when she herself told him the truth. He had immediately dismissed it as a lie.

Ladybug didn't know Chat Noir enough to realize just how much he distanced her masked self from the girl underneath and that contrary to his proclamations, he might not be willing to really look for her.

Adrien didn't know Marinette enough to know she would never lie to him like that, pretending to be someone she was not just to get his attention.

And Marinette, Marinette didn't know Adrien at all it seemed. This boy, whom she had trusted with her life time and time again, this boy to whom she had most recently entrusted her heart, this boy was not willing to so much as listen to her explanation of what had really happened.

She had listened to him explain himself once upon a time on a rainy day and she had thought herself in love with him after that.

She should have just accepted his rejection the day before. She shouldn't have tried and change his mind with the truth. The truth he wasn't willing to accept. The truth he wanted to be a lie because she apparently wasn't what he wanted in the maskless Ladybug.

If she had taken his rejection, her heart would have been broken but her love and trust for the boy would still be intact. As things stood, though...

Ladybug wouldn't be able to trust Chat Noir after this. Her partner, the one person who should have been on her side or at least listened to her, was looking at her like she had disappointed him. Like she was the lowest of the low when it was in fact him who was letting her down.

The joke was on both of them and Marinette simply had to smile.

"I get it now," she said into the oppressive silence of the class. "I can't believe how stupid and pathetic I was." She heard Alya's intake of breath and wondered if her best friend meant to chide her or agree with her. She didn't want to find out. Losing Chat over this was going to be bad enough. "I'm sorry, Adrien. I don't think you'll ever understand just how sorry I am."

Something softened in his face but Marinette didn't care. It was too little, too late. She just kept smiling serenely. She kept smiling as she picked up her bag and shouldered it, she kept smiling as she passed by a triumphant-looking Chloe, she kept smiling as she walked out of the door and let it shut behind her.

* * *

Marinette told her parents she wasn't feeling well and they agreed to let her stay at home for the rest of the day. She spent her free hours by systematically taking down every single reminder of Adrien that had been in her room. Tikki hovered quietly near her shoulder and Marinette was well aware of the worried glances the kwami was shooting her.

"Do you think I should have proved I wasn't lying?" Marinette asked as she opened a framed photo of Adrien, taking the photo out and tossing it on the top of the other pictures already in the trash bin. She was going to keep the frame, it was a nice one. She would find a picture to fill it later.

"Maybe it would have been for the best," Tikki said, her voice unsure. Marinette shook her head.

"No, it would do nothing but soothe my wounded pride. That's not a good reason."

She could live with her classmates thinking her a pathetic liar who resorted to trickery to get a boy she liked.

"But Adrien-"

"Adrien made it clear that I wasn't good enough to be Ladybug in his eyes. Setting him straight would have been satisfying for a short time but ultimately pointless," Marinette said. It would have been easy. All she would have to do was mention kwamis. There were precious few people in Paris who knew the term and it would have vindicated her completely. But it wouldn't have erased the things Adrien had said to her, had implied about her. No, it was best to let it go, to let the entire idea of that boy loving her back dissipate into nothingness.

Yesterday had been bad and she had messed up completely, she would admit that readily. But that situation could have still been salvaged. One honest conversation, between two people willing to listen, to understand and to forgive. But it hadn't happened that way. And maybe it was for the best. She had enough on her plate as it was, her love troubles were only making things worse.

"Marinette, don't close off your heart," Tikki said anxiously and Marinette realized she had said that last part aloud. She sighed and reached for Tikki, cuddling the kwami to comfort both of them.

"I'm not closing off my heart, I'm just... restricting people's access to it. I have Maman and Papa and you, maybe Alya if she's not too angry with me. That is enough for me."

It had to be enough.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An unexpected Christmas bonus. I originally meant to post this after Christmas but honestly? Your feedback convinced me otherwise. Enjoy.

Alya was waiting impatiently for the school to be let out. She hadn't bothered to so much as pretend to pay attention during the lessons, choosing instead to scroll through her phone and piecing together the clues. It was a testament to how weird and tense the atmosphere in the class was that the teachers let her do so without confiscating her phone.

God, she had been so blind. The truth had been literally sitting next to her from the beginning but she had failed to realize it. But not anymore.

Marinette always disappeared during the Akuma attacks and came back with weird excuses. Marinette had set up her interview with Ladybug. Marinette and Ladybug had never been seen in the same place. Marinette and Ladybug were the same height, had the same figure, same hair, hair style, eyes. It was obvious once you started looking.

Alya allowed herself ten seconds of anger at the fact her best friend had kept it from her. Then she reminded herself that the most important part of a secret identity was the secret and that confiding in a friend who ran a blog about superheroes was not the best option for Marinette.

Well, it was going to be an option from now on. Friends were worth more than blogs.

Speaking of friends...

Alya raised her head and took a look around the class. She was satisfied to see that most of the people wouldn't meet her eyes. She might have been a bit excessive in her defense of Marinette - and that was even before she had her realization - but someone had to do it. Chloe's smugness at hearing Marinette's admission of being pathetic had been getting unbearable.

"So what if Marinette lied! She wouldn't be the first person to do something stupid over a crush! She's a human being and humans make mistakes! But hey, why should you try and understand when you can judge her, right? After all, none of you ever screwed up! You're all paragons of virtue!"

It had shamed most of the class into a contemplative silence and Alya had retreated into her research. She had come to two conclusions. Marinette hadn't lied about being Ladybug and Adrien was most likely Chat Noir. It was the only reason Alya could think of for Marinette to tell him who she was. Because Alya knew her friend and if Marinette was telling Adrien her secret, it was not to better her chances at getting him to like her. No, it was because she had somehow found out and decided to let him know in return.

But of course the pretty boy had fucked it up. Alya understood his caution but he had taken it too far. Before Marinette had smiled, there had been such a look of devastation on her face that Alya had almost started crying herself. She could only try and guess at what Adrien's unwillingness to listen to Marinette's explanation meant for Ladybug and Chat Noir.

Nothing good, most likely.

Alya hadn't tried to call Marinette earlier. All things considered, it was probably for the best that she didn't. Some talks were better to be had face to face and without an audience. Alya glared at Adrien. Marinette was not entirely blameless for the whole fiasco but he had made it so much worse. How Alya wished she could take all of her findings and beat them around his head until he understood just how stupid he had been. But she couldn't.

First of all, it wasn't her secret to tell. Marinette was supposed to be the one to tell him and that had blown up spectacularly. Second of all, he didn't deserve to know, not after earlier. Marinette had put all her feelings and secrets on the line and what had he done? Trampled all over them because it didn't line up with what he had wanted.

There was a sharp beep from most of the phones in the class. The Akuma alert app. Alya swiped at her phone, opening the app. She was ninety nine percent sure it wasn't Marinette but she needed to make sure.

**Where:** Champ de Mars

**What:** A military themed Akuma that called themself Le Général.

If Marinette were to fall prey to Hawkmoth, well, first of all, they would be screwed. But an Akuma Marinette would be more likely to have a theme to do with either Ladybug or heartbreak. So that was out. Alya was glad.

A quick look at the clock told her there were only ten minutes left until the class was over.

"Mademoiselle?" Alya called out, raising her hand. "May I be excused?"

The teacher looked at the clock and then at the phone in Alya's hand. Alya could almost watch the cogs turning in the teacher's head. The fact that no one else was paying attention to the lesson and was instead looking at their phones was most likely the deciding factor.

"You may all go. Remember to do the exercises on pages 190 and 191."

Alya was out of her seat before the teacher finished speaking. Champ de Mars was relatively close to the school and she could make it there under half an hour. She got to the door and took vindictive pleasure in cutting in front of Adrien. The fact that he averted his eyes from her was even better.

"In a hurry to see Ladybug?" she muttered as she passed him. "To make sure Marinette really lied to you?"

"You don't know what-"

She cut him off as they both hurried down the hallway.

"I know more than enough, pretty boy. I know that you have a blinding crush on a superhero and that you fundamentally misunderstood what my best friend was trying to tell you."

"Then why didn't she explain herself?"

Alya came to a halt and whirled around so fast her glasses slipped down her nose. She pushed them back up and glared at him.

"Maybe she would if you gave her a chance. But after Chloe started on her and backed her into a corner like that? After she aired what was supposed to be a private conversation to the entire class? Yes, I wonder why Marinette didn't explain herself." Alya took a deep breath and let it out. Both of them had places to be but first, she was going to make something clear to him. "Marinette is my best friend. I will go to her and listen to her explain what happened and only after that is done will I judge her. Because that is what friends do. They don't jump to conclusions because they don't like what they're hearing." She gave him a big, blinding smile. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an Akuma fight to record and a friend to support."

She didn't wait for his reply, if he had any in the first place. If she was right about her guesses, Marinette was going to need her rather soon and she didn't intend to fail as a best friend. Not in this.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I posted this one on Tumblr, I described it as "2000 words of LadyNoir angst". Make of it what you will. This is also the end of the posting of the pre-written parts, every chapter from here on is brand new. I'll post next on Tuesday.

Le Général was not a difficult Akuma as far as these things went. Chat Noir got on the scene quickly, taking full advantage of the free space, taunting the Akuma into following him closer to the Eiffel Tower. Chat thought Ladybug would appreciate having the tall structure to anchor her yo-yo. He glanced around for her while fending off the Akuma's sword. He was pretty sure that the possessed object was the large medal the Akuma was wearing around their neck.

"They purromote anyone these days," Chat said as he managed to knock the sword out of Le Général's hand. "Maybe if you spent more time practicing, you wouldn't have been beaten so easily."

The Akuma growled and drew another sword from the sheath at their side. Chat grinned but he was starting to get nervous. Ladybug wasn't usually this late. More often, it had been him trying to catch up to her. Still, he could hold off the Akuma for quite some time although he would prefer not to.

A swish of a yo-yo was the most welcome sound Chat had ever heard, followed by Ladybug herself. She landed on the other side of the Akuma, sizing up the situation quickly. She had a serious expression on her face as she took in both the Akuma and him.

"Fashionably late, My Lady?" Chat called out with a grin, expecting a playful rejoinder. What he got, though...

"Not in the mood, Chat."

That was it. No scolding, no teasing, just a flat statement. He looked at her closer and noticed how tight her mouth was, her lips two thin lines pressed together. She was upset.

"A bad day?" he asked more softly. She kept her eyes on the Akuma, her entire posture tense.

"The worst," she replied after a long pause. She scrunched up her face, took a deep breath and then she launched herself straight at the Akuma. Chat gaped after her. She ducked under the sword and hit the Akuma in the stomach, like a small and furious cannonball. Both she and the Akuma went down, rolling across the ground and Chat shook himself out of his stupor, running after them.

What she had done was something reckless. He was usually the one tackling their enemies not Ladybug. The last time she had done something similar had been when they had been fighting Animan. And even then she had done it because she had a plan. Chat didn't think she had a plan this time, she just literally threw herself into the fight because she was upset and not thinking clearly.

The Akuma was gasping for breath, out of commission for a precious few seconds. Ladybug laid nearby, about to climb to her feet and Chat offered her a hand to help her up.

She eyed his hand for a moment and then turned away and got up on her own, smashing the medal she had managed to grab off the Akuma's neck. She spun her yo-yo and caught the escaping butterfly, cleansing it and setting it free. When the glowing white wings disappeared in the distance, Chat finally remembered to lower his outstretched hand.

He watched numbly as she then tossed her yo-yo into the air and cried out the words that set things to rights again. Physical things, at least. Chat half-raised his hand again for the congratulatory fist bump but Ladybug ignored it, talking to the former Akuma softly. The place was soon swarming with police and emergency services and even the press and Chat went on an autopilot, replying to some questions and otherwise keeping to the background. He contemplated leaving but there was something wrong with Ladybug and he couldn't... he wouldn't leave things be without at least trying to find out what was going on.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Ladybug looked at him. He made himself smile and act like everything was fine. This wasn't the right place and time to talk about what was bothering her.

"Care for a stroll, My Lady?" he asked. She nodded and tossed her yo-yo towards a nearby roof. He followed after her, keeping up easily. They ran and leapt across the rooftops until they were far enough from the site of the earlier commotion. Ladybug skidded to a stop and turned around suddenly, eyeing Chat up and down. He straightened up under the scrutiny. He couldn't hold back a comment, though.

"Liking what you see?" he asked with a wink. All thoughts of flirting were knocked out of his head, though, when he saw the hurt on her face. "Ladybug? What's wrong?"

She half-turned away from him.

"A friend of mine got hurt today."

Chat winced. She was worried for a friend and he went and flirted with her. Really sensitive of him.

"Will they be okay?"

"It wasn't a physical hurt. She was called names, which wouldn't have been so bad. The other girl does things like that often. What hurt more was that she wasn't given a chance to defend herself. Everyone just turned against her, all because of a simple mistake."

Chat took a step forward, thinking to comfort her with a pat on the shoulder but she took a step forward, too, to keep the distance between them even.

"I'm sure it will be fine," he said in lieu of anything better. Ladybug shook her head.

"It won't. Actually, I think you know my friend. You met her once or twice. Marinette, remember?"

Chat couldn't help the wince. Yeah, he remembered Marinette and he remembered exactly what happened earlier today. Although he had no idea she and Ladybug were friendly enough for Marinette to share what had happened, her version of it at least.

"Are you two close?"

There was a strange smile on Ladybug's face.

"She knows me better than I know myself."

Chat tried to stamp down on the anger he felt. It made Marinette's lies all the worse. Ladybug clearly trusted her and Marinette abused that trust in the worst way possible. But he couldn't warn Ladybug about it, not without having to explain how he knew that.

"What happened?" he asked. Maybe if he knew how Marinette had deceived Ladybug, he could find a way to protect his Lady from a friend who was clearly unworthy of her.

"Marinette decided to confess to a boy she liked. But because her usual MO around him involved a lot of stuttering and incoherent sentences, he misunderstood and thought she was lying to him about something important. It's not surprising she botched that first confession. She tried to tell him too much and too fast and in wrong order. She didn't even tell him why she decided to confess after having been in love with him for so long. So he took it the wrong way."

Chat's mood plummeted down further. So far, it seemed very close to what had actually happened. And he remembered Marinette trying to tell him something, he had just been too angry with her to listen. Was it possible that he had been wrong about her?

"It got even worse because apparently, Chloe? You remember her, too, right? Well, Chloe overheard a part of that confession and came to the same conclusion as Adrien. That Marinette was trying to lie and deceive and manipulate him into a relationship with her." Ladybug tried to snort as she said that but the sound changed half-way through and came out as a sob. "How little would you have to know about her to believe that?"

Chat's cat ears lay flat against his skull. He wanted to argue, to defend his point of view but he couldn't. He had been ready to believe the worst of Marinette and nothing he said now would change that.

"W-why would they think that?" he asked softly. Ladybug seemed to shrink into herself.

"Marinette said she was me. Unbelievable, right? After all, she's nothing special, right? She's not good enough to be a superhero, right?" Ladybug straightened up suddenly. "What do you think, Chat? What is it that I have and Marinette doesn't? Is she not brave enough? Kind enough? Pretty enough? Tell me, Chat." She approached him for the first time since they landed on the roof. "Tell me, why was it easier for them to believe she was lying instead of considering that maybe, just maybe, she was telling the truth?"

Chat felt like all the air was sucked out of him. He couldn't have been so wrong about it all. He couldn't have been so blind. He couldn't have... Ladybug smiled and her smile was exactly like Marinette's earlier that day.

"You want to know the worst part? She didn't even get a chance to explain. She wanted to, she planned on taking Adrien aside and explaining everything but before she could, Chloe started on her. The only way she could disprove Chloe's claims was to out me in front of the whole class and she couldn't do that. She had to protect my identity and so she kept quiet. But it would have been worth it, all of it would have been worth it if only she got a chance to explain to Adrien. But she wasn't given even that simple courtesy, was she, Adrien?" She let the silence stretch between them, filling in the gaps until... "Spots off, Tikki."

A pink light swirled around Ladybug and Marinette stood in her place. Chat was frozen to the spot. It shouldn't have been possible. He had always believed he would know Ladybug without the mask the moment he met her. That was why he had reacted so badly to Marinette's claim. Because to accept it would have meant accepting everything he had believed about his feelings for his Lady had been wrong. That he had, in fact, not recognized her on the spot. That he hadn't known her as well as he had thought.

"Aren't you going to say I somehow tricked Ladybug into lending me her Miraculous and kwami so I could continue deceiving you?" she asked bitterly.

"Marinette, I'm so sorry." Even though the words felt inadequate to what had happened, they were the only thing he had.

"Apology acknowledged," she said. He detransformed as well because he didn't know what else to do. Marinette looked up at him.

"Do you remember the first time we met as Adrien and Marinette? I was angry with you because of that misunderstanding with the gum on my seat. But then you approached me later and explained yourself. That was when I fell in love with you. Because I thought you were kind and fair and I wanted to hear you laugh like that again. I gave you a second chance, Adrien, but you wouldn't even give me the first."

"I'll fix this, I promise," he said hurriedly, reaching for her hand but she held it up and shook her head.

"There's no fixing this, don't you get it? If you couldn't love me, that would be fine. But you wouldn't trust me and that hurt so much more. I'm supposed to be able to rely on you and now I can't. When I found out you were Chat, it felt like the happiest day of my life. It meant that I didn't have to feel torn about choosing one of you. I thought I could have both. I was really wrong about that, huh?"

She took a step back from him and Adrien couldn't make himself move forward. He had ruined everything. He didn't have any right to go after her. Not after what he had done.

"I have a plan regarding Hawkmoth, I just need to talk it over with my kwami."

"Hawkmoth?" he parroted, thrown by the sudden change of topic.

"Of course. We can't be a team without the trust between us but we can't leave Paris undefended either. I thought about passing on my Miraculous but it would take time for the new Ladybug to get used to the job. So we'll be taking down Hawkmoth as soon as possible and then we can go our separate ways."

_I don't want us to be apart. I don't want our relationship to end like this. I don't want to lose you, I was an idiot who was too prideful for his own good, please forgive me, forgive me, I love you, I love all of you, I'm sorry, please, don't leave like this._

Adrien said none of the words he wanted to. He didn't deserve to say them. It was all his fault and he deserved the pain he was feeling.

"I'll be ready," he said instead and then Marinette nodded at him and whispered the words that cloaked her in Ladybug's mantle again. Ladybug gave him one last look - he could see Marinette in every inch of her and it hurt so much - and took off at a run. Adrien sank down to his knees and stared after her until she disappeared in the distance. He was aware of Plagg sitting down on his head. "I'm the worst, Plagg."

"Third worst, kid. Both of you are still alive, after all, so cheer up. It could have been worse."

It wasn't a comforting thought at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before anyone asks me about Plagg, please, remember how old he is and how many things he has seen. This drama? Still salvageable as far as he's concerned. Or you can read chapter four of my story The Best of Bad Luck, which is in Plagg's POV and sheds some light on his remarks at the end of this one.

**Author's Note:**

> [This](http://moonie-love.tumblr.com/post/154098770557/kittybugs-evil-idea) and [this](http://marichengs.tumblr.com/post/154086403313/the-reveal-that-didnt-masterpost) are two masterposts of the various versions of this prompt. I highly recommend reading through them. They are awesome.


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